Michael Geist - Canada Excluded From Next Round of TPP Negotiations

The next round of TPP negotiations will again have a distinct lack of Canadian input. What this means is that decisions that are made during the coming TPP negotiations won't even require Canada's approval. The Canadian government seems to be almost as much in the dark as we are when it comes to the secrecy of the TPP—allowing lobbyists and unelected trade representatives to make decisions about your everyday Internet use.

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Article by Michael Geist

When the U.S. invited Canada to join the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations last month, there was an agreed upon delay to allow it to complete a domestic approval process. As part of that delay, Canada was to be excluded from the negotiations during the approval period and bound by any substantive agreements reached during those talks. While most assumed that would only cover the just-completed San Diego round of discussions, it turns out that Canada will be excluded from the next round of negotiations as well.

Given Canada's late entry into the TPP process, the U.S. was able to extract two onerous conditions that Prime Minister Stephen Harper downplayed as the "accession process." First, Canada will not be able to reopen any chapters where agreement has already been reached among the current nine TPP partners. This means Canada has already agreed to be bound by TPP terms without having had any input. Since the TPP remains secret, the government can't even tell us what has been agreed upon.

Second, Canada has second-tier status in the negotiations as the U.S. has stipulated that Canada will not have "veto authority" over any chapter. This means that should the other nine countries agree on terms, Canada would be required to accept them. Read more »